“Thank you for your workshop. The content was perfect. The delivery was best-in-class.”

—Beth Lowry

Executive Vice PresidentHolder Construction Company

Why It Works

Since 1995, our proven process has helped thousands of people shed nervous habits, overcome fears, and shift their focus off themselves and onto others. As a result, people feel comfortable in their own skin and confident about what they have to offer. Here’s what to expect:

The Graceworks team travels around the world helping corporate professionals become more effective presenters, communicators, writers and leaders. We love what we do and we promise you …

Freedom
We promise to help you find your freedom. Everything we do is designed to free you from fear, to free you to be yourself, and — ultimately — to free you to connect comfortably and confidently with others.

Fun
We promise working with us will be a positive, energizing and fun experience. We will laugh.

Transformation
We promise a one-of-a-kind transformational experience, not just training. Unlike more technical approaches, we work from the inside out. We won’t dole out quick fixes, gimmicks or band-aids. We’ll help you discover, identify, and overcome doubts, fears and misconceptions. Lives will be changed.

Customized Training
We promise to take our proven methods and tailor them to your specific needs. Every firm is different and one size does not fit all!

Exceptional Trainers
We promise handpicked trainers who are specifically called and whole-heartedly committed to our unique approach. They love their work and pour themselves into it.

The Graceworks Way

What makes Graceworks so effective? It’s a combination of research, experience and a sixth sense developed over more than 20 years of training professionals in presentations, communication, writing and leadership. We help you achieve your goals with a combination of best-in-class processes and our own proprietary methodology, the Graceworks Way®. Our methods achieve extraordinary results time after time – that’s why over two-thirds of our clients invite us back for more.

At the heart of our methodology is The Human Connection®, our guiding philosophy of finding and celebrating humanity in business. Exploring and practicing The Human Connection® can improve communication, spark creativity and streamline processes, allowing you to reach concrete business goals and have a good time along the way.

Here’s how The Graceworks Way® is experienced in our presentation/communication workshops:

1: Laying the Foundation
Valuable training produces positive, long-lasting change. That’s why we start by exploring your history and digging into how and why you think and behave. During this stage, we draw out your stories and challenge you to observe them from an objective viewpoint, replacing counterfeit beliefs with valid truths. This step is the first toward real freedom as a presenter, communicator or leader.

2: Trying it Out
Then, we create a safe and fun place for you to experience what you’ve learned. At this point, we aren’t teaching, but we’re helping you discover truths for yourselves. Through strategic improvisation and specialized games, you’ll start to move from intellectual consent to emotional belief.

3: Doing it Together
At this stage, we use the group to further each individual’s experience. We place you in real-world scenarios and coach you on your performance, allowing the group to illuminate your strengths through immediate feedback and cooperative learning. Knowing your strengths creates the core confidence to stretch into areas where you feel less comfortable; the goal is for you to experience success in concrete and unmistakable ways.

4: Taking it Personally
We conduct most of our trainings in groups, which is powerful because everyone learns from each other. Equally as powerful is the individual attention the participants receive. For example, in our two-day presentation workshop, we meet with each member individually. In this session, we listen and guide you through inductive reasoning exercises that will help you clarify your goals. After this session, you will have a personal action plan focused on one or two tasks that you need to perform to reach your goal.

5: Bringing it to Life
Now the training wheels come off. We’re here to observe, offer perspective, and provide guidance and inspiration when you start to lose your nerve. The ultimate goal is for you to make big, bold choices without our help. We know our work is done when we’ve coached ourselves out of a job!

Whole Brain® Thinking

Seventy percent of Fortune 500 companies have used Herrmann Global’s Whole Brain® Thinking model to unlock and maximize their workforce potential. Just as most of us have a dominant eye and hand, we also have a dominant way of thinking. Whole Brain® theory helps us understand and leverage not only how we think, but also how we work best with other types of thinkers. The Graceworks Way® builds extensively on Whole Brain® thinking.

There are a lot of assessment tools out there, so why do we like the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI®)?

It doesn’t peg you.
We all prefer to think in a certain way. The HBDI® just shows us how we personally like to think. Knowing that, we’re free to stretch into other thinking styles as needed.

It measures preference, not proficiency.
The HBDI® measures how you like to process information, revealing how you approach problems, opportunities, relationships, etc.

It’s scalable.
Not only is HBDI® great for individuals and teams, but the same model can be used to plan complex projects, generate innovative solutions, and guide organizational development.

Strategic Improvisation

Do you think well on your feet? No one can give you the solution for every situation. But through strategic improvisation, you’ll learn how to trust yourself and adapt to your circumstances. Improvisation pulls out what’s really inside you — stuff you didn’t know you had. We guarantee you’ll surprise yourself! Along the way, you’ll prepare yourself to face challenges with wisdom, humanity and grace.

Belief-Building Exercises

Building belief is key to creating positive, lasting change. That’s why we design experiences that allow you to discover the truth for yourself. Whether it’s a group activity or a one-on-one video review, we establish a lighthearted atmosphere to help you open up and reflect on your own experiences. In the end, you learn to “own” the material and fit it into your everyday life.

Master-Class Coaching

Individual coaching conducted in a master-class format (teacher and student interact while the group watches and participates as appropriate) gives the participants an opportunity to put into practice all the skills they’ve been studying. The best part about this coaching approach is everyone learns from watching and supporting everyone else! While the coaches take the presenters to the next level, the group practices the power of honest, positive and specific feedback. It’s transformational!

Appreciative Inquiry

You are your own greatest critic, and for many, self-criticism stifles performance and blocks The Human Connection®. That’s why our honest, positive approach begins by focusing on what you’re doing well. That said, we don’t blow smoke, and we don’t pull punches. Only when you’ve accepted what you’re really good at are you prepared to address what will make you even better.

Living Examples

We strive to be living examples of what we teach, using our own techniques to bring life to our presentations, humanity to our leadership, and compassion to our communications. We listen and support you exactly the way we urge you to do with others. Our goal is for you to experience firsthand what it feels like to be taken care of as a follower, an audience member and a human being — so that you can go and do the same!